Tag Archives: Indiana Crime Victims’ Act

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Plaintiff, based in Ferdinand, Indiana, sells chairs and other furniture under the BEST CHAIRS trademark. Defendant is allegedly selling competing furniture products under the BESTCHAIR and BEST CHAIR marks. Despite multiple contacts from Plaintiff, Defendant has refused to refrain from selling under the allegedly infringing mark.

Plaintiff, James Dean Inc., wants the @JamesDean Twitter handle. Somebody else has been using the Twitter handle since 2009 as a fan account for the Fairmount, Indiana-raised rebel movie icon. The @JamesDean account has more than 8,200 followers and has sent over 2,200 tweets. CMG Worldwide, the exclusive licensee of James Dean’s name and likeness, unable to convince Twitter to hand over the account, are now suing Twitter directly in federal court to force compliance. Twitter looks set to put up a full defense rather than subject themselves to an onslaught of username complaints.

Stay tuned for what will likely become a precedent-setting case for dead celebrity Twitter handles.

Plaintiff alleges that Defendant is manufacturing and selling unauthorized “Energy Dome Hats,” the headwear popularized by American New Wave band DEVO.

Plaintiff claims to be the exclusive licensing agent of DEVO’s intellectual property rights. The Complaint references a pair of federal trademark registrations for DEVO in connection with “entertainment services” and “sound and visual recordings.” The ultimate question for this case however, which is less clear in the Complaint, is whether DEVO owns the rights to manufacture and sell Energy Dome Hats, which are “red in color, circular, and including four tiers of the circular design, with each tier becoming larger in circumference from the top of the hat to the bottom of the hat.”

Plaintiff is an actor, producer, and writer, best known for his performance as “Too Sweet” in 1979’s Penitentiary and its sequels. He is also a partner of a food company with Smokey Robinson, Smokey Robinson Foods.This lawsuit involves Plaintiff’s attempt to get the domain name leonisaackennedy.com from an alleged cybersquatter, via the registrar GoDaddy.

Interesting case. Plaintiff Net Pro was apparently the first company to make tennis trading cards way back in 1991. Defendant also makes tennis trading cards. As part of a recent promo series, Defendant has been packaging its own cards along with older, more valuable cards of Plaintiff (e.g. a Plaintiff 2003 rookie card of Rafa Nadal, etc.) Plaintiff feels Defendant’s actions have damaged its ability to sell its own stock of older cards. Kind of a flea-market, “first sale,” nominative fair use case. Despite Plaintiff including such colorful claims as “Deception” the “Indiana Crime Victims’ Act,” I don’t think this case is an easy slam…it could definitely go 5 sets with the proper defense.